The work stoppage hit the critical energy sector of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the oil-rich province of Bushehr in the Persian Gulf on Monday.
Dramatic footage circulating on social media showed contract workers in the city of Asalouyeh singing “Down with the Dictator,” in reference to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who did not hesitate to order his security forces to mow down the protesters. peaceful with real ammunition.
“Union strikes have the potential to paralyze the Islamic Republic, particularly in the energy sector. After three weeks of revolution, mass strikes in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors pose a serious existential threat to the regime,” said the l Iranian expert Alireza Nader Fox Digital News.
Nader, who has written extensively on trade unions and worker unrest as a vehicle for ousting the employee regime, added that the United States and other Western nations should “set up a strike fund to help workers and their families.” .
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A security guard stands at his station at the Persia Gulf Star Co. gas condensate refinery in Bandar Abbas, Iran. (Ali Mohammadi / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
London-based news organization Iran International has provided links to Twitter accounts revealing footage of workers claiming, “This year is the year of blood, Seyed Ali Khamenei is over!”
The union unrest in Iran’s energy industry was triggered by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s moral police who allegedly beat and killed 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for violating the nation’s strict law requiring women to cover their hair.
Amini’s death last month plunged Iran into riots across the vast Middle Eastern nation.
Workers also protested in Abadan, Khuzestan province, which is one of Iran’s largest oil and petrochemical centers.
According to the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, the Contractual Oil Workers Protest Organizing Council wrote on its Telegram channel: “A [all] our colleagues in oil, gas and petrochemical projects, in all refineries and in the petrochemical; on oil platforms as well as drilling sites, we declare that now is the time for widespread protests and to prepare for national and grueling strikes. “
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The workers added: “This is the beginning of the road and we will continue our protests together with the whole nation day after day.”
People light a fire during a September 21, 2022 protest in Tehran, Iran, over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who died after being arrested by the nation’s “moral police”.
(West Asian News Agency via Reuters)
The Iranian regime-controlled Tasnim news agency said the union actions were linked to a wage dispute involving 700 workers. The Islamic Republic did not explicitly recognize strike activity.
Disruptions in the Iranian energy sector are the first case of disruptions to work in the energy field due to Amini’s death.
According to human rights groups, the clerical regime has killed 185 people, including 19 minors, since the demonstrations broke out more than three weeks ago.
Iranian authorities say “rioters” killed at least 20 security forces officers.
Trade union and social unrest has largely been confined to universities, where at least 10 universities have conducted strikes since Amini’s death. At the end of September, the Coordination Council of Cultural Associations urged teachers and students to go on strike.
Iran International reported on Saturday that Tehran’s traditional Grand Bazaar has closed and small businesses and retail workers have joined the demonstrations against the Khamenei regime.
The recent industrial and job disruptions in Iranian energy come at a time when the Biden administration is vigorously seeking to strike a nuclear deal with Tehran’s rulers. According to a study conducted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name of the Iranian atomic agreement, would pour $ 275 billion into Iran’s coffers during the first year of the agreement.
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In exchange for the suspension of economic sanctions on the Iranian regime, the deal would simply require Khamenei to temporarily halt his reported program to build a nuclear device.
A police motorcycle burns during a September 19 2022 protest in Tehran, Iran, over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who died after being arrested by the nation’s “moral police”. (West Asian News Agency via Reuters)
Lisa Daftari, Iran expert and chief editor of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital: “The timing of this couldn’t be more worrying for both the Iranian regime and the US as OPEC announced production cuts. , giving more weight to Iran’s global oil production. Now, petrochemical strikers in Iran have a great opportunity to stand up to the world and demand attention on human rights and calls for freedom from Iranian protesters. “
The administration’s special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, recently said the Biden administration is not interested in changing the Iranian government. Malley told NPR that the United States wants “a government in Iran that is respectful of the fundamental rights of its people,” but not regime change.
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